Just the Facts:
Weeks pregnant: 10 weeks, 1 day. I was going to blog yesterday but then I got confused about my new “week day”… in any case, it’s been a week and a half since the last update.
Weight: 136 pounds. It was as low as 133 in the last week, but 136 today.
Gain: +1 overall
Waist: I’m curious but I still haven’t dug out my tape measure. Maybe I should remove this until it gets really fun and huge.
Size of the baby: almost an inch
Weight: about 3g. That’s 3 paper clips.
Other pregnancy related crap:
Emotional crap: Still feeling more mellow/centered. But definitely crying while watching homebirth videos/montages on youtube (of course) and certain songs.
Physical crap: Still really tired. But getting better at taking naps when I need them (when Anneliese is sleeping too) or resting while Anneliese plays. I really need to get better at going to bed way earlier. Less queasy overall thank GOODNESS. It still hits pretty hard in the morning though, I think because I have an empty stomach and Anneliese is nursing. Round ligament pain. Like whoa. Not too often, but when it’s there it’s like ZING. I almost forgot about it, but then I got up from writing this blog post to let Zora in, and one hit me.
What I want to devour: I haven’t had a pickle sno cone but I’m kind of over that idea. I DID get In n Out today, and it was everything I thought it would be. I want more. Lemon is still good. Maybe I’ll get an artichoke to make this week w/hollandaise. The thing about hollandaise is it’s really packed with good stuff and calories (egg yolks and butter FTW) so it would probably help me a lot. I went ahead an ordered a case of coconut water because it definitely helps me with the queasiness. Thankful I did that. It helped today. I really want meat. Eating so much carb crap is really catching up with me and my body is mad. It helped short-term because it put something in my stomach and it was calories – better than nothing, but long term, I still feel like crap eating that way and I need to get back to my normal ASAP. Rotisserie chicken is on my shopping list.
(Anneliese had her first In-N-Out today – just a plain beef patty, to go with the banana and string cheese I brought her. She loved it. I brought ham too but she didn’t want anything to do with it. And my protein-style yumful thing. It was SO good. I don’t know why I got fries. I didn’t want them.)
What makes me want to hurl: A lot of the things that had been okay before – cereal, sourdough bread, RICE (how can that make anyone hurl?). Most fruit just seems like way too much sugar and I hate the way it coats my teeth and throat. Also, even though I want meat, if I cook it myself, I can’t eat it. I’m too close to it or something. I smelled it while it was cooking, I touched it while it was raw, etc. And by the time it’s ready to eat I am so over it. I can’t take a bite. So that’s why the rotisserie chicken EVEN THOUGH I have like 7 pastured chickens in my freezer that I could cook myself. That’s why I can eat burgers from in-n-out EVEN THOUGH I have several pounds of grass-fed beef in my freezer. That’s why I went to Chili’s yesterday with some girlfriends and ordered a steak (which wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but I ate about half, which my body definitely needed) when I can totally make my own.
Supplements: Prenatal vitamin, calcium that has a little bit of Vitamin D in it. I need to track down my fish oil and Vitamin D. Requested a 25(OH)-D test and I was pretty darned low (I forget the exact number, but low)… so need to get my D back up. Especially before fall and winter so I don’t get sick!
Activity/Training: ugh. Doing a LOT of squatting. Like whenever I clean up Anneliese’s toys, fill up her water or my water (squat at the water dispenser thing), squat to pick Anneliese up, etc etc. I need to not NEED to nap in the morning. So I can get up and walk before it’s too hot. Which means I need to get to bed earlier. Again. Twitter friends – yell at me please if I’m up past 10. Like I am right now writing this blog post.
Boy/Girl?: Still feeling the boy stuff. Not having zit issues like I was with Anneliese (that was BAD in the beginning), craving/disliking different things, just feeling generally different… so to me different seems like a boy. But I don’t know if that’s accurate, because lots of people have very different pregnancies with babies of the same gender.
Birth prep: Met with a homebirth midwife today. She seems like a good match. I really like her energy – calm, laid-back, but alert/aware/observing. She told me she’s very hands-off which I definitely appreciate. She also works with another midwife so there would be two of them there… I forgot to ask today about sterile water injections for back labor. You need TWO midwives (or doctors, or whomever) to do it, and I would be happy if it were an option. Basically you create little “pads” of sterile water near your spine to relieve pressure on certain nerves, which significantly eases or eliminates pain related to back labor. The injection itself is extremely painful, but that pain lasts about 90 seconds, as opposed to the 20 hours of back labor I had… So you can see why I’d consider the trade-off.
I need to talk with my husband and see what his thoughts are, but I think we will probably end up with her.
We will be paying her out of pocket, not covered by insurance at all, but because insurance won’t have anything to do with it, I’ll be able to keep getting prenatal care at the Naval Hospital. That will be really helpful because it’s a 2 minute drive to the hospital (or a nice walk, if we’re ready early enough), instead of an hour each way and a half a tank of gas to visit the midwife for each appointment. I also don’t mind going to the hospital because there ARE nice doctors there and Midwife Spaberg (who caught Anneliese) and I want them to be familiar with me and my pregnancy in case I need to transfer there in an emergency anyway.
Baby prep: Daydreaming. I’m so excited for this little one. And so excited to see Anneliese be a big sister. I imagine her holding the new baby looking all proud and being so careful. I imagine wrapping the little one on my back and taking Anneliese to the playground while newbie naps on me. I imagine nursing the little one while Anneliese nurses her baby doll, or curls up next to me to nurse too and stare into her little sibling’s eyes. Lots of daydreaming.
Tandem nursing / BOOBS: Awesome. Anneliese is nursing so much more nicely again. Very little pinching. Still some gymnurstics but we’re working on that. I think morning nursing is still her very favorite. If she were to mostly-wean I think that’s the one she’d hold on to the longest. When I get her from her bed in the morning, she signs “milk” excitedly, and usually follows up with “please.” She’s a bit upset that I want to change her diaper first, but it has to be done. Then we go to my room to snuggle and nurse in bed for a long time. My belly is a bit more tender now and I don’t like her lying on top of me with her pokey knees and toes especially when she squirms, so I’ve been tucking her into my arm and she curls up against the side of my body, and nurses, looking up at me. It’s SO sweet. I love rubbing her back while she nurses.
I love nursing her before bed too. When she is really sleepy her latch is perfect, and she doesn’t pinch or do any gymnurstics at all. Just cuddles in like a newborn. She hasn’t actually been falling asleep nursing though. A few times she has realized she was finished, and sat up, said “Nigh Nigh” and smiled, ready for bed. Other times, I’ve rubbed her back and said quietly, “Are you ready to go to bed?” and she will sleepily sit up and let me put her on her bed. Once on her bed, she finds her sleepy sheep and her pacifier and snuggles down, then drifts off to sleep after an “I love you” from me. Perfection.
My nipples aren’t as sore as they were, probably because she’s stopped pinching and her latch has gotten better again (less teeth action). If she does slip up and kind of grazes her teeth on me, I’ll unlatch her, touch her teeth and say “your teeth hurt mama.” And I do the sign language for “hurt” and “mama.” Then I say firmly “Don’t hurt Mama,” (with signs for all 3 words) and let her nurse again. She seems to be getting the point, and has even tried to sign “hurt” back to me.
Other stuff:
I took the picture on the left IN THE MORNING on the 5th (4 days ago). To show you that the bloat thing is really really insane. All those super-pregnant looking photos? Pretty much taken after 3pm. This one was in the morning and I look pretty normal/unpregnant, I think.
The picture on the right is the 4th (5 days ago) in the evening before bed. Pretty darned pregnant looking, right??? I wasn’t sucking in or puffing out in either picture. Just normal. Isn’t this craziness?
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
How do I email you? I have some information regarding Tricare and homebirth that might interest you.